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12.31.2010

Baroness Ashton should think twice before lifting the arms embargo to China as Beijing continues its racist policies against the Uyghurs

Statement by Senator Marco Perduca, co-vicepresident of the Nonviolent Radical Party and Treasurer of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization:

"After the January execution of the Uyghur girl Hayrinsa Sawut (20) , accuse of murder during the July 2009 riots in East Turkestan, and life sentence against Gulmire Imin for her role as an "illegal organizer" for the same events, Radio Free Asia informs us today that Pezilet Ekber a third Uyghur girl has been sentenced, this time to death for the alleged role in the 2009 uprising.

China's great leap towards modernity remains guided by the negation of human rights starting from the one to life. Baroness Ashton, whose recent report described the embargo as "a major impediment" to Europe-China security and foreign policy cooperation, should indeed take these pieces of information into consideration when "the EU should assess its practical implication and design a way forward" as she urged the 27 Member States to do.

The embargo was possibly one of the rare real political statements adopted by the EU after the brutal repression of Tien An Men and should not be considered as a mere "commercial limitation" but a principled decision. The diffusion of weapons around the world has never lead to greater security nor has it improved political-economical relations, and, if it is true that democracy do not wage war against one another, it is a well established fact that authoritarian regimes do not hesitate to use force whenever they think they are threatened. It should be enough to read Beijing's reactions to whatever concerns Tibet, Eastern Turkestan, Taiwan but also Korea, Japan or Vietnam to imagine how those weapons could be used. Baroness Ashton should better choose a different new year resolution.